Crawling the web for GeoData

Juan Gonzalez (PlanetEye Inc.)

11:35am Wednesday, 05/14/2008

Location: Salon A-F

Over the last few years the availability of simple map technologies has pushed everyone to publish location-specific information. Now, that information can be used to consolidate independent entries referring to the same location, enabling a new range of applications. Think of this approach as a “technorati for geotagged data”.

In this session we’ll present the inner workings of the PlanetEyeBot:

Types of resources it is capable of parsing
Patent-pending technology for maintaining an efficient GeoIndex regardless of the size of the database
Usual challenges in consolidating duplicates
The notion of “authority”, “noise” & “decay” in categorizing entries
Future direction

Juan Gonzalez

PlanetEye Inc.

Over the past decade, Juan has been focused on building online applications for some of the most recognized brands, helping them deliver outstanding user experiences. His passion for global cultures inspired him to write an award-winning blog (Global Culture), which has sparked many of the ideas currently under development at PlanetEye, an incumbent in the travel planning space.

As PlanetEye’s VP of Technology, Juan is leading the development of an online travel guide that brings together geotagged media, rich visualizations and mass participation to change the way people plan their travel.